First, it’s not easy things that Tokamak Energy develops. But the company has surprised the market with promising technological advancements. Among other things they have produced two laboratory prototypes, and in this context, with its ST25 HTS model, succeeded in demonstrating a world first use of High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets. So, they have produced cutting-edge results and the company claims that it presently is a world leader in two transformative technologies: the compact spherical tokamak and HTS magnets.
A Focus on Small, Compact Fusion Devices
But a huge problem is, as noted in the introduction, that fusion reactions occur at extremely high temperatures and pressures as gas is converted into plasma. We are talking about temperatures in the 100-million-degree Celsius range. What is done to deal with this is to confine the plasma by allowing magnetic fields in a specialized container – a tokamak (the word is a Russian abbreviation for magnetic ring polar) – which can hold the extremely hot material in place without it touching the containment vessel wall material or anything else that could melt.
Here, the Joint European Torus (JET) unit in Culham, Oxfordshire, has succeeded best by at one point producing 16 megawatts (MW) of fusion power. Still, the problem is to get this production to result in a large enough usable energy surplus. In short, it takes almost as much or probably more energy to create the energy you are looking to commercialize. A backwards business, then. How do you solve this?
The conventional answer has been to build ever larger toroidal chamber with magnetic coils for plasma confinement. These can be chambers up to 20 stories high. This is where Tokamak Energy comes into play.
This private company has taken an innovative approach: producing fusion energy in small, compact units – just a few meters wide.
Tokamak Energy’s former CEO, David Kingham (now CEO is Warrick Matthews), in a Siemens case study explained where the company is headed: “Our goal is to be the first to commercialize fusion and the first to create a fusion device that delivers an energy gain. We designed the world’s first high-field spherical tokamak to take full advantage of this class of device.”
How far along this route they have reached is not entirely clear, but as mentioned above, Tokamak Energy has produced two laboratory prototypes and successfully demonstrated the use of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.
“A pilot fusion plant will be up and running in ten years,” Tokamak Energy chairman Chris Martin claimed in December 2024, explaining that this would be followed in the near future by a commercial 500MW reactor.
“Our mission is to deliver fusion energy in the 2030s. We think 2034 for a demonstrator is realistic. And someone will have a commercial reactor ready in the second half of that decade,” he said in an interview on the Newburn Ellis website.
“Aras is eliminating the traditional barriers,” says CEO, Roque Martin
Aras’ challenge will therefore primarily be to create a digital thread solution within the framework related to where Tokamak Energy is in the development process. It’s doubtlessly a tough job to tackle, but Aras PLM’s CEO, Roque Martin (pictured left), is positive and says in a comment:
“Tokamak Energy is doing groundbreaking work and with our flexible platform and unique business model, the traditional barriers to using PLM are eliminated, which allows innovative companies like Tokamak Energy to focus on their core mission – developing commercial solutions for fusion energy.”
He further notes that Tokamak Energy’s choice of Aras Innovator and the SaaS model as its first enterprise-wide PLM solution comes after an extensive evaluation, where the Innovator platform’s flexible architecture, cost-effective licensing model and extensive functionality are now available from day one.
Connecting Simulations and Design Iterations
In the press material, Aras writes that the initial implementation will focus on integration with existing design and drawing control systems, while establishing a robust change management system to support a targeted ISO certification.
Generally about Aras Innovator in this regard is that the solution maintains connections to critical product information, which allows users to track digital assets throughout the product lifecycle: from concept and design to manufacturing, quality control, field maintenance and product disposition. This means that product data can be used for most of the things needed in product development and production, such as organizing BOMs (Bill of Material) or generally streamlining workflows while ensuring that the development team has access to the right information at the right time.
That said, the idea behind today’s order is that at a later stage, Tokamak Energy plans to leverage Aras Innovator’s capabilities to create a comprehensive digital thread that connects complex fusion technology simulations with design iterations.
Martin Tsang says the platform will also play a crucial role in Tokamak Energy’s commercialization of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, streamlining the organization of design and manufacturing information while ensuring the traceability required for customer and regulatory requirements.
SOPHIA, Simulation, Digital Twins, and Aras Role
The exact meaning of what Tsang says is not entirely clear. Will Aras Innovator take over as a general PDM/PLM system? And what about the basic CAD design and the data management around this? The press material doesn’t discuss around this at all. However, a previously published case study from Siemens (2017) shows that the company has worked, and still works in Siemens Digital Industries Software’s CAD design software Solid Edge, and also use PDM based on Siemens Teamcenter solution. These solutions have for example been used in the design and development of the ST40 model.
An interesting venture related to the product development and realization works during the last couple of years is that Tokamak Energy has created a new in-house simulator solution, SOPHIA. This tokamak simulator is developed for integrated modeling of ST40 and other next step devices. It combines in one workflow the ASTRA-SPIDER free boundary evolution and transport code and the real-time Plasma Control System (PCS) in MATLAB and Simulink used in ST40 experiments.
In a press release (11 June 202) it is stated that, ”Tokamak Energy will use a new digital twin computer software programme for upcoming tests when its record-breaking fusion machine returns to plasma operations. The Oxford-based company’s ST40 will mirror experiments simulated virtually in the modeling program SOPHIA to greatly improve efficiency and accelerate progress on the company’s roadmap to commercializing clean, secure and affordable fusion energy in the 2030s.”
But, it is not inconceivable that the CAD and PDM pieces will remain as basic company design tools, that is Solid Edge as a CAD and design platform and Teamcenter on the PDM side.
PLM&ERP News has been in contact with stakeholders in this matter and the answers point in the direction of retaining both Solid Edge and Teamcenter.
In any case, it is not uncommon within larger organizations to have multiple systems and to use their original PDM system in combination with Aras (if invested in), which is then dedicated to complementary collaborative tasks.
World leader in two transformative technologies
So, Tokamak Energy is a leading global commercial fusion energy company. With the compact spherical tokamak magnet and High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnets as a fund, the company’s focus is to, “use licensable technology to commercialize clean, safe and affordable fusion energy and enable new levels of performance in HTS applications that are changing the world we live in today.”
Founded in 2009 as a spin-off from the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Tokamak Energy employs a growing team of over 260 people with experts from the UK and around the world. This combines world-leading scientific, technical, industrial and commercial capabilities.
“We have 77 families of patent applications and have raised $335 million, of which $275 million from private investors and $60 million funded by the UK and US governments,” the press release states.
Tokamak’s US subsidiary, Tokamak Energy Inc, was founded in 2019 and is one of eight companies selected by the US government’s Department of Energy for an award as part of its Milestone Program, a key aspect of the bold decadal vision to deliver commercial fusion.
A decadal vision is a holistic vision that blends recommendations for research, people and technology. A tough challenge but achieving this with Tokamak Energy’s solutions would be a huge win.
If you want to read more on how Tokamak Energy use Solid Edge and Teamcenter in its design work – here’s the link to Siemens case story on these topics:
https://resources.sw.siemens.com/en-US/case-study-tokamak-energy/
